Landa Coldiron, a bloodhound handler who specializes in finding lost pets, searches a neighborhood in Orange with her dog Diana, They were looking for Isabella, a Yorkshire terrier who has been missing for a year, on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Landa Coldiron, a bloodhound handler who specializes in finding lost pets, searches a neighborhood in Orange with her dog Diana, They were looking for Isabella, a Yorkshire terrier who has been missing for a year, on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Landa Coldiron, a bloodhound handler who specializes in finding lost pets, is on the case with her 6-year-old dog, Diana in Orange on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Diana, a 6-year-old bloodhound, jumps out of Landa Coldiron’s van as they prepare to search for Isabella, a Yorkshire terrier who has been missing for a year. Coldiron, who specializes in finding lost pets, searches a neighborhood in Orange with no luck on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Landa Coldiron uses the blanket and sweater to capture the scent of Isabella, a Yorkshire terrier who went missing after the car she was in was stolen. Coldiron and her bloodhound searched a neighborhood in Orange on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Landa Coldiron exposes her bloodhound Diana to the scent of Isabella, a Yorkshire terrier who went missing after the car she was in was stolen. Coldiron and her dog searched a neighborhood in Orange for clues on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Landa Coldiron, a bloodhound handler who specializes in finding lost pets, searches a neighborhood in Orange with her dog Diana, They were looking for Isabella, a Yorkshire terrier who has been missing for a year, on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Landa Coldiron, a bloodhound handler who specializes in finding lost pets, searches a neighborhood in Orange with her dog Diana, They were looking for Isabella, a Yorkshire terrier who has been missing for a year, on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Landa Coldiron’s bloodhound, Diana, singles to her that she has not hit the scent of a lost dog they were searching for in Orange on on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Landa Coldiron, a bloodhound handler who specializes in finding lost pets, with her 6-year-old dog, Diana, in Orange on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lee Shakespeare hangs a tarp on the back of her minivan with the picture of her missing Yorkshire terrier who was never returned after the car she was in was stolen. She has summoned the help of veteran bloodhound handle Landa Coldiron who searched a neighborhood in Orange on
Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Landa Coldiron, a bloodhound handler who specializes in finding lost pets, with her 6-year-old dog, Diana, in Orange on Sunday, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Diana, 6-year-old bloodhound shacks her head after searching a neighborhood in Orange on Sunday, April 28, 2019 with owner Landa Coldiron, a veteran bloodhound handler. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

It turns out, my decision to keep quiet is a good thing. We may only be looking for an animal, but Coldiron reminds me that for pet lovers — and I’ll confess I am one — Isabella is a family member.

After all, when was the last time your spouse or child greeted you at the door with wide-eyed excitement and boundless joy?

But it also turns out we are on a very serious and all too common quest. According to American Humane, an astounding 10 million pets are lost or stolen every year.

If you want to avoid losing what many call their “fur kid,” pay close attention. Diana and her trusty sidekick, Coldiron, have much knowledge to share as we search for Isabella.

Bloodhound training

Coldiron grew up in Salem, Ohio, population 11,000. And, like many Midwesterners, she tired of blizzards and emigrated to sunny California when she had the chance.

For more than a decade, she managed apartment complexes in Van Nuys and was good at it. But one day, Coldiron was watching the Animal Planet network and saw her dream job.

On one of the shows, a woman by the name of Kat Albrecht shared how she trained dogs to find other animals, usually cats or dogs. Best of all, she talked about teaching others to train search-and-rescue dogs.

Albrecht is still active and her resume includes being “a former police bloodhound handler, crime scene investigator, search-and-rescue manager, and police-officer-turned-investigative pet detective.”

But when Coldiron called Albrecht, who lived in Fresno, the former cop laid out what her eager student faced. First, Coldiron needed the right dog, then she needed to train the animal every day for at least 18 months before she could even think about her first search and — hopefully — rescue.

“If you find you really have the knack for it,” Albrecht said, “call me back.”

Smart and determined woman that she is, Coldiron, now 58, reached out to the California Rescue Dog Association for a local mentor and found a retired law enforcement officer who agreed to help.

Understand, CARDA trains dogs to search for humans and states its “dog teams have participated in thousands of missing person searches and have saved public safety agencies millions of dollars through the use of volunteer resources.”

Coldiron attended CARDA meetings, trained in forests, urban areas and deserts. She honed her skills at reading bloodhound behavior and how to make scent maps.

Along the way, she also refined tips for pet owners: fliers may need more than one language; be sure to park a vehicle near an intersection with a banner in big neon letters reporting your lost pet.

She also carefully considered what type of dog she would get. Border collies, for example, are smart and can be trained to track off leash. But the more Coldiron worked with bloodhounds the more she realized that was the dog for her.

“They are the oldest breed of scent-based detection dogs,” Coldiron offers. “And I really fell in love with the breed.”

As I stoop down, Diana nuzzles my face.

Dangerous duty

In 2004, Coldiron got her first bloodhound, Ellie Mae, and drove to Fresno to work with Albrecht.

In some ways, dog training is simple. You do things over and over until the dog gets it right.

In other ways, training dogs for utility work is tough. “You start by calling out in a high voice, ‘puppy, puppy, puppy,’ over and over to let the dog know they are doing things right. Then you do that 10,000 times.

“It’s not a hobby,” Coldiron cautions. “It’s a lifestyle.”

Eventually, Coldiron moved to Lancaster because it was inexpensive as well as expansive — perfect ground to train bloodhounds. Soon, she added Glory and, later, Diana.

“Bloodhounds,” she explains, “are sweet, lovable dogs. But they need a lot of exercise.”

Early on, Coldiron admits, her learning curve was steep and jobs were nerve-wracking. But only because she cared.

“People are very, very serious about their lost pets,” she allows. “It’s like going out and looking for a lost child. You have to be prepared.

“It’s very emotional. There’s lots of crying.”

There’s also lots of hiking, running, climbing around barriers, asking homeowners if it’s OK to walk through their yard and convincing businesses that a lost dog or cat (or turtle or ferret) might be on their property.

“I’ve been in plenty of weird situations,” Coldiron reports. “I’ve run on freeways, across Pacific Coast Highway, searched through storms in San Francisco, been attacked by hornets in Malibu, dealt with loose dogs, trekked through graveyards.

In citing Coldiron’s dog, the association tells the story of Goldie, a Pekingese who strayed. “Our hearts were broken,” reported Goldie’s owner. “On day eight, Landa arrived with Glory working 24 hours a day in the rain.

“At nine days missing, Glory found Goldie alive under crates in an outdoor factory.”

But some cases have less happy endings.

Difficult day

Working with her partner, Annalisa Berns, a licensed private investigator, Coldiron says the search we happen to be on is especially difficult for the pet owner as well as the bloodhound.

It was 15 months ago when Isabella disappeared in the stolen van. The vehicle was recovered the next day. But the Yorkshire terrier hasn’t been seen since.

Back then, Isabella’s owner, Lee Shakespeare, contacted Coldiron within a few weeks. No luck. But Shakespeare never got over the loss and wondered if whoever took the van sold or gave away Isabella.

Isabella’s fliers offer a $1,000 reward. But on this day, Coldiron warns Shakespeare that it’s unlikely the effort is worth spending money or time. Still, the bloodhound handler also understands it’s sometimes impossible to let go and agrees to keep searching.

While Shakespeare stays put in the staging area — a parking lot in Orange — Diana wanders. And that’s pretty much it. Even after several hours, the bloodhound can’t find the scent.

Coldiron tells me she recommends a sturdy collar, identification tags and a microchip so the animal can be identified if it ends up at a shelter or clinic. But the bloodhound specialist also takes an extra step.

David Whiting is the award-winning Metro Columnist at The Orange County Register. He also can be heard on radio, has served as a television news anchor and speaks frequently at organizations and universities. He previously was an assistant managing editor and has received Columbia University’s Race and Ethnicity Award, National Headliner awards and Sigma Delta Chi’s Public Service Award. He recently was invited to participate in an exchange program with Chinese journalists. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his master’s from Columbia University’s Graduate School for Journalism. He is a two-time Ironman, a two-time Boston marathoner and has climbed the highest mountains in Africa and North and South America.

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